The Union Cabinet has approved an outlay of Rs 1.39 trillion for the BharatNet project. The cabinet cleared the latest round of funds to provide last-mile optical fibre-based connectivity to homes in all the villages of the country.
With the upgrade, the government aims to modernise the BharatNet project which involves changing its execution strategy and providing fibre connections to the last mile through village-level entrepreneurs. According to industry sources, around 194,000 villages have been connected at present and the government is looking to speed up its process of connecting all 640,000 villages over the next 2.5 years.
BharatNet is one of the biggest rural telecom projects in the world, implemented in a phased manner to all 250,000 lakh gram panchayats in the country for last-mile broadband connectivity.
Industry reactions:
Commenting on the development, TR Dua, Director General, Digital Infrastructure Provider Association (DIPA), said, “This historic decision by the Union Cabinet is poised to elevate the nation’s digital connectivity quotient efficiently and expeditiously providing high-speed broadband to every Indian including rural, thereby contributing to the realisation of the ‘Antyodyay’ goal.” DIPA welcomes the approval of the BharatNet project by the Union Cabinet, calling it a significant stride towards realising the objectives of Digital India and promoting inclusiveness.
